The History of the Racketboy Forum

Post by **dsheinem** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 10:25 am

For a while I have been kicking around the idea of creating a post that functions as a timeline/history of important threads and events in the lifespan of the Racketboy Forum. It might be fun to have a dump thread where we can archive links to old posts or threads, provide brief summaries of why they are important historical moments for the forum, and otherwise serve as a resource for both long time folks to revisit fun threads from the past and for new folks to get a sense of the forum's culture and history.

Ground Rules for appearing in this OP:
-Thread or post must have been dead/mostly dead for at least a year.
-Thread or post must have been of high quality/humor/significance (this is obviously debatable).
-If submitting a thread or post, you must provide a link AND a brief 1-2 sentence blurb explaining its importance.
-Locked threads can be submitted.
-Except in rare instances, the following threads or posts won't be published in this OP: guides, threads that are links to other sites/files, BST threads, or anything else that isn't really about the history/culture of the forum.

If you have ideas for things to add, place them in this thread and/or PM me and I'll see about adding it to the list.

I've indicated a few "areas" that we can organize threads into. Feel free to suggest more.

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Important firsts:
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*2005/12/05 - Earliest archived thread - Racketboy's first post? Nick, can you confirm or deny?

*2006/10/25 - Record of first successful BST transaction - Cerulean bought some NES games from Mozgus. (anyone find anything older?)

*2008/02/15 - Origins of Together Retro - This is the thread where the long running "Together Retro" series got its start!

*2009/10/16 - First Episode of the Racketboy Podcast - Features an interview with Racketboy creator/owner Nick about the site. You can also check out the Forum Moderator Roundtable episode, where you'll hear interesting stories about and by the folks who have moderated the forums over the years.

*2010/08 - First Racketboy Meetup - This one took place in TX in 2010. There have since been many across the country and there are now regular ones in the NY/NJ/PA area and the CA Bay area! Here's the video from that first day.

*2011/04/02 - First user to 10,000 posts - noiseredux is a golden god

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Great Moments in Game-Related Discussion:
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*2011/04/06 - EULA/Piracy argument - It started as a thread about hackers trying to take down the PSN. It quickly branched out into EULAs, piracy, and personal insults. The thread is a great snapshot of now-banned user Inazuma in action.

*2011/06/27 -Used games debate - This thread was initially about Capcom not letting players delete saves in Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D. As the discussion progressed it turned into an absurdly complicated debate about used games.

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Great Moments in Off-Topic Discussion:
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Origins of forum memes and other recurring jokes:
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*2009/08/09 - Budsmoka's paint jobs - Budsmoka's console painting abilities have become the stuff of legend, and are the standard against which all other paint jobs are measured. He's also a ladies' man.

*2009/12/16 -Henry Grik - henrygrik was a poster (spambot?) that left us some wonderfully composed sentences, all of which quickly became memes in the forum. Any references to " gain/enhance new knowledge" or to "grab new thing" refer to this.

*2010/02/18 -Grape Pop Tarts (and with Peanut Butter) - A food combination made for heaven and/or hell. For some reason mention of these two foodstuffs really stuck as a recurring meme.

*2010/09/12 - Ballz 3D - "Ballz 3D" references or extra large pictures of the game or its art are often used to reply to "what is the best X?" threads, especially when those threads have been done many times before.

Post by **o.pwuaioc** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 10:43 am

I don't have time at this second to look all these up, but I will if these ideas are approved and no one has submitted them since.

One of the most significant threads would be the loss of Breetai.

And yet we overcome grief with donations to the Cheslock family. That thread, and a history of our charitable giving should be included.

To try not to bum everyone out, random people with significantly humorous threads: dreamcast4eva's wife, Inazuma, M0zgus, budsmoka, bosomjack, jerbar120.

Finally, not so sure if they're as important, but it may be nice to include the foundation of podcasts as well as regional meetups. The latter shows the real life interactions of the members, which is significant to our history, I'd argue. And Ballz.

Post by **dsheinem** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 10:48 am

o.pwuaioc wrote:I don't have time at this second to look all these up, but I will if these ideas are approved and no one has submitted them since.

One of the most significant threads would be the loss of Breetai.

And yet we overcome grief with donations to the Cheslock family. That thread, and a history of our charitable giving should be included.

To try not to bum everyone out, random people with significantly humorous threads: dreamcast4eva's wife, Inazuma, M0zgus, budsmoka, bosomjack, jerbar120.

Finally, not so sure if they're as important, but it may be nice to include the foundation of podcasts as well as regional meetups. The latter shows the real life interactions of the members, which is significant to our history, I'd argue. And Ballz.

The Breetai stuff actually got me thinking about this thread again, but I don't want to add stuff less than a year old to the post. It will certainly be here in time.

If you (or someone) could find links and write up short blurbs (following the model in the OP) for some of those other things (that are older), it would be great

The first meetup (in TX, I think) and I guess the first podcast thread can be added - good call on both.

Post by **Blu** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 11:03 am

Would it be a weird idea to lock some of these historical threads? From what I've seen from past forums with archives, most of those noteworthy threads are locked. If that's the goal, perhaps not allowing certain threads to be posted in anymore might be a worth considering.

EDIT: Wording seemed unclear.

Post by **8bit** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 11:41 am

First Instance of the Forum Meme: Ballz - Need I explain? The pic Mozgus posted doesn't work still but it was the first instance I can find the cover art for Ballz posted.

Post by **dsheinem** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 1:10 pm

8bit wrote:First Instance of the Forum Meme: Ballz - Need I explain? The pic Mozgus posted doesn't work still but it was the first instance I can find the cover art for Ballz posted.

I don't think that counts as the first use of it as a meme, since it is actually a legitimate use for that image given the thread.

Also, I think I started that one: http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 59#p341759 The "joke" is to use it in response to a "serious" question - usually about "what the best X?" or "name your favorite X?" after we've had the same thread many times.

EDIT: See also here in a quick response to Flake - http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 4&p=308470

Post by **chupon** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 1:26 pm

This concept was brought up in the recommend changes to racketboy thread and got shot down.
Glad to see this actually taking off now!

Don't lock the Henry Grik thread as I understand everyone is supposed to put their 1000th post in that thread. It's some kind of unspoken right of passage.

So many good threads. I'm very excited to see what gets featured.

Post by **sevin0seven** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 1:53 pm

Post by **BoringSupreez** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 2:12 pm

Here's one of Budsmoka's paint job threads. This is the one where he screwed up his PS2. From August 9th '09.

And then there's Let me help you with the ladies, also courtesy of Budsmoka. He gave out pathetic stoner (oops, I meant "cannabis enthusiast") advice on how to get women, while Mozgus countered with some of his usual classic posts. From August 7th '09.

Post by **dsheinem** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 2:14 pm

Please keep these in mind:

-Thread or post must have been dead/mostly dead for at least a year.

-If submitting a thread or post, you must provide a link AND a brief 1-2 sentence blurb explaining it's importance.

Some of you may want to go back and edit your posts. Including the dates as in the OP is very helpful too: try to follow that formatting.

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